The future of ERP: predictions for 2017

With 2016 coming to a close – we thought it would be a great time to compile some expert ERP predictions! Hear what others in the industry have to say about what to expect in 2017 for the future of ERP applications.

Cloud ERP

So, what might 2017 have to offer? We spoke with Eric Kimberling, Managing Partner at Panorama Consulting Solutions – Eric has made predictions in the ERP market for the last 10 years. Amongst all the coverage of the cloud, what about other ERP solutions? Eric suggests that “best of breed solutions will continue to make inroads against more traditional, “single-system” ERP solutions.” He sees Functional point solutions such as CRM, HCM, and BI becoming more popular alternatives for many SMEs.

ERP Customisation

With the popularity and increasing customisation abilities of new technologies, Eric predicts that there may also be more implementation failures, “Although best of breed solutions are more viable now than they have been in years past, they also increase technical complexity and risk, which can lead to more failure.”

According to Dan Pepijn, it’s these customizations, however, that may be essential to the functionality of a business, “Customization is key to creating an effective ERP experience, but sometimes it is difficult and expensive when updates come along. ERP updates span an average of six to twelve months. While disruptions to business may be minimal, the time, effort and resources necessary to accomplish these updates can be significant.”

Nick Castellina, Vice President and Research Group Director, Business Planning & Execution at Aberdeen Group spoke with us about the overall trends toward customization for 2017 as well. “What’s most important is that solutions fit the functional needs of their users. I see ERP vendors building more industry-specific functionality to help their customers standardize on best practices, as defined by their peers. These solutions will help users to more effectively compete in their industries, reduce costs, and please more customers.”

Gamification

In the same vein, Chris Shaul predicts that ERPs will not only become more customized and mobile, but they might focus on becoming ‘gamified’. “Gamification puts incentives on the “players” (aka users) to reach the next level, or accumulate points to earn some reward. Applied to business systems that can mean that users get rewarded based on the amount of transactions they process, or they solve business problems in such a way that they receive awards.”

Machine Learning and AI

With the rapid advancement of technology and the recent unveiling of AWS features, David Linthicum predicted in CoudEndure.com’s article, “machine learning and AI in general, will be on everyone’s minds, AWS and some third-party providers will come up with some pretty innovative and there will be lots of talk on the approaches and technologies needed to assist enterprises in mass migrations of workloads.”

Over to you, what do you think? Are these ERP predictions accurate, and do you have a few to emerging ERP trends to add?

Be sure to share your thoughts with us on social using #TechPredictions

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